How to Apply for your Australian Driving License

Applying for my Australian Driving License is something I have been meaning to do for some time it’s just that I haven’t had chance to get around to it.

The timing thing was starting to worry me though. If you are a just a visitor to Western Australia then your allowed to drive for a period of 12 months.

If you intend on becoming or are already a permanent resident of WA (like me) then your supposed to obtain your WA drivers license within 3 months!

So 15 months later I thought it was time for me to get myself sorted! If I got stopped by the police then I think I’d probably get the book thrown at me.

What implications not having a valid license had on the validity of my car insurance goodness knows but if I wrote my car off I’m sure the news wouldn’t be good.

So, I trundled on down to my local licensing centre and got myself sorted. Read more

Popularity: 57% [?]

Australian Suburb Profiles - Now that’s Handy

I’ve written recently about the little poll we’ve been running and the interesting results that it’s showing us (615 votes at time of typing).

However identifying the state in which you want to live is one thing, choosing which suburb you want to move into is another.

Getting first hand advice from people living in your shortlisted suburb is going to be a great way to get a view of what living in a suburb is really like.

A quick post in our Australian Real estate and where to live forum might well be a good start however there’s a lot of suburbs out there and waiting for someone who ‘just-so-happens’ to live in the same suburb may not be the most effective use of your time, especially if your looking to settle in one of the more remote areas.

It was whilst doing some research on Suburbs in an attempt to help out a couple of our forum members that I stumbled upon a pretty useful site.

The guys over at Domain.com.au have a handy little section on their site which provides suburb profiles of every suburb in Australia (well, I’ve not been able to find one which isn’t profiled yet).

They provide details of public transport, surrounding suburbs, house price data and a handful of other demographics which are compiled from a variety of sources including the Australian Bureau of Statistics and research by Australian Property Monitors.

So, to search for what might be your future Suburb then Click Here (Link opens in a new window).

Hopefully you’ll find the info pretty useful

Popularity: 57% [?]

So where are you heading - take two

Back in October I talked about the poll I’d added on the left hand side of the ‘page’ in an attempt to identify which Australian state folks were thinking about settling in.

At time of typing and 569 Votes later I thought it would be useful to give a quick update.

Not surprising (for me); Western Australia is still heading up the top of the poll with 28% of the votes, however Queensland is still proving particularly popularly popular with 22% of the vote with Victoria coming in a close third with 21%.

The back markers are South Australia 15% and last but not least New South Wales with 14% of the vote.

I’m still surprised that New South Wales is lagging back in last place but it goes to show that the Sydney Opera house and harbour bridge aren’t the be all and end all for everyone

Popularity: 65% [?]

Wanted Down Under Series 3 - How to Apply for Wanted Down Under

I had an email from Helen Crawley the researcher at the BBC who helped find the ‘contestants’ to appear on The BBC’s Popular Wanted Down Under Program.

She was writing to remind me that the advert I posted a little while back is now out of date (I’d imagine she was getting a little tired of the phone calls and emails so sorry Helen )

She has asked me to update the contact details. So if any of you folks are interested in appearing in the Third Series of Wanted Down under then you need to email the BBC at: wanteddownunder@bbc.co.uk.

Helen was a little none committal though saying the BBC ‘may still need applicants for series 3 should we make one’ so keep this in mind when sending your emails off. Read more

Popularity: 84% [?]